The 12 Days Before Christmas

Let's backtrack a little.  I decided this year I would bake again. What a wonderful decision!  I got a little jealous of a cousin posting cookie baking photos on ye'old FB... So I when I didn't get the recipe emailed to me I decided to investigate the inter-web for my own.  ...Little did she know that was the start of multiple recipes and one too many cookies to taste...  I got inspired to pull out my old faithful Sugar Cookie recipe & Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Blossoms along with some new ones like Oreo Cheesecake Cookies,  & Espresso Cheesecake Brownies.

They were ALL a hit. Plus I got to pull out the camera and tinker with my favorite things. f/stops and ISO's.  

Joy to the World!

Baking actually started 5 Days before Christmas with the promise from a friend that putting a slice of white bread into the bag would keep the cookies from going stale. I was skeptical but was willing to give it a try.  First the Sugar Cookie dough.

Then off to the new Oreo recipe! Craap not enough flour. Hmmm what DO I have in the 'pantry'... peanut butter... crisco... OOoooh enough flour for a batch of these!  Find recipe here. (Realizing that I should really get out a real camera instead of using my cell phone to take photos... I have $$$ worth of equipment... maybe I should USE it!)  *Hubs pick up more flour on your way home...

Three days before Christmas eve... Ok quick, do some dishes, make some counter space and get more cookies in the oven before the girls wake up!

Ok so much better on the camera front but I think I really need to dust off that part of my brain. Cookies taste good, Check. Using real camera, Check. Now to hone my photography skills that have collected mommy dust... 

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies. Find the recipe here.  Thanks again CrumblyCookie.net for the deliciousness.  I can't say I deviated from the recipe at all that I noticed.  They came out more crunchy than I anticipated. My oven is a far cry from a baker's dream so more often then not i'm unaware of how to adjust cooking times to avoid meeting a burnt or undercooked fate. A few days in a plastic bag with a piece of bread made them a bit softer, a consistency I was more pleased with.

Alrighty now, there are those photography brain cells. Phew I thought I'd lost them to baby & toddler photos!  I never thought I'd use my cell phone for photos of my kids but the darn thing comes in handy more often than not.  I just don't have that fourth arm to carry the camera bag these days. What a shame.

Here's a cell photo, since the real camera was charging. I was hoping for a deeper green but you get the picture. ;)  Sadly it's been two years since I pulled out my cookie cutters.  I'm overjoyed with the outcome but I had several reports from friends that their cookies all melted together or were just a disaster.  I was really just happy they came out edible. Plus other people's flops always make you feel a little better when your recipe comes comes out! We'll get into My Sugar Cookies in another post.